 |
| Vincent Ascanio, Me, The King, Peter Agnew & Frank Anichiarico |
I wound up having them hold a Crown Victoria for me. It worked out well since I had four other people come for the ride.
I got the car and I drove back home to get the King. We arranged to have our friends Al Linderman and Frank Anichiarico meet us there. We told our pal Vincent Ascanio to meet us by the 21st Street subway station in Queensbridge. He called that he was early so I went out and picked him up while we waited for Frank to come by.
It worked out well as Frank showed up at Noon and away we went.
On the way down South we ran into a big thunderstorm just North of Philadelphia on I-95. I thought I was back in Florida it was that bad.
After weathering the storm, we arrived in the Baltimore area around 4:30PM. We arranged to meet up with our friends Peter & Carmen Agnew for dinner at Looney's Pub in Canton/Fell's Point where they live. Since Carmen was going to Church at 5PM she didn't have time to eat with us. She wanted to say hello to us at least. It was great to see her again. She's such a wonderful person. Peter wound up ordering food for her to take out after we were all done eating.
As usual, the food was delicious. We ordered chicken wings which were made to order and they were damn good I must say. I had a piece of broiled orange roughy for dinner. The other guys went with burgers. They were very satisfied customers I might add. I asked them how their food was and I got plenty of positive responses.
Peter introduced us to John who's the manager at that location. I told him we love coming here. Why go somewhere else when you know what you're getting here. After trying plenty of other places, I know Looney's suits our eating and drinking needs best.
After we ate, we drove over to Oriole Park at Camden Yards to see the Orioles play the Oakland Athletics. Peter arranged to get us tickets for the game right behind home plate up near the top in the shade in section 336. He knows that's where we love to sit. Since he has season tickets for the Orioles he was able to exchange some unused tickets so he could accommodate us. That was very kind of him. For that, we were very grateful.
Peter decided to go home and wait for Carmen so she could have her dinner.
As for the game we saw, the Athletics beat up on the Orioles, 6-1.
The star of the game was rookie Yoenis Cespedes, the star from Cuba that the Athletics signed in the off season. I've seen him play briefly on TV a few times. This was the first time I saw him play live. What a thrill he was to watch. He can do it all for the young up and coming Athletics. On this night, he lead the way with his bat hitting a home run. He also hit a stand up triple as he raced around the bases like it was nothing. In addition, he made a great backhanded catch in center field after playing most of the game in left field.
I hope to see him play again but that may not be until next year. The main reason we went to Baltimore this time was because they were playing the Athletics. They come to Yankee Stadium for their only visit in September and the Mets are home at the same time. Since the King has a streak going to every home game at Citi Field except for one that he missed in 2009, he won't be able to see the Athletics play in New York. For that matter, he can't be in two places at the same time. As for me, I plan to be at Citi Field too. If not, I may go to a football game that weekend. We try to see every team play at least one game home or away if possible every year.
In retrospect, it turned out to be a wise decision to go to Baltimore. We got to see Yoenis Cespedes put on a show and we saw the original of the retro ballparks. Camden Yards is still the best of the new ones. It's a modern day Wrigley Field in comparison to the others. Quite amazingly, Oriole Park opened up way back in 1992. Time has literally flown by. I remember going there for the first time. They played the Mets in an exhibition game. This was my 85th game there over the years. I've seen at least one every year. As for the King, he's seen 150+ there including the first official game that opened the ballpark on April 6,1992 when the Orioles hosted the Cleveland Indians.
Thank you for reading and following along.
Yours truly,
Gary Herman
No comments:
Post a Comment